College Board releases annual SAT score results

Today, the College
Board, which administers the SAT, released state reports. For Delaware, the
report covers two distinct student populations: scores for public school
students who as juniors took the Universal SAT administered during the school
day in April 2014 and those for the graduating Class of 2014, which includes
public and private school students, including those public school students
whose Universal SAT scores were released last fall.

UNIVERSAL
SAT REPORT

Beginning
in April 2011, Delaware became the first in the nation to fund a school-day
administration of the college readiness exam to every public school 11th
grader in the state. Originally funded as part of the state’s federal Race to
the Top grant, Delaware has continued the program using state funds. Thanks to
the program, Delaware educators also receive detailed reports on spring SAT
results to help them identify content strengths and weakness among their
students. This is important for students to prepare for graduation so they can
be ready to go on to postsecondary education or the workforce without the need
for remediation. Providing every student with the chance to take the SAT at no
cost is an important step toward increasing access to postsecondary education.

Providing the SAT to
all public school 11th graders is part of Delaware’s larger strategy to improve
college and career readiness among all Delaware students and increase the
number of students who are likely to apply to college.

“Enabling students
to take the exam during a regular school day at their own high school helps
students who may otherwise be hindered by other factors,” Secretary of
Education Mark Murphy said, noting examples such as the cost of registration,
lack of transportation to the test center, unfamiliarity with the test and how
to prepare, and conflicts with job or family responsibilities. “Thousands of
additional Delaware students are taking the SAT because of this program. We are
eliminating barriers and encouraging a college-ready culture in every school for
every student.”

For the Class of
2015, whose members took the SAT as juniors last spring as part of the school
day Universal SAT administration, the state mean scores were:

Class
of 2015 (Public) Universal SAT Mean Scores

Critical reading

442*

Mathematics

444*

Writing

420*

The
analysis schools receive shows not just their students’ raw scores but detailed
reports that outline how students performed in critical areas within the
reading, writing and math portions of the exam.

CLASS OF 2014
REPORT

Prior to the
Universal SAT program, fewer than 3,200 students took the SAT, including public
and private school students. For the Class of 2014, 8,122 students took the
exam in Delaware. That figure includes the 7,937 students who took the exam as
juniors two years ago as part of the Universal SAT program.

While
the Universal SAT data outlined above for the Class of 2015 includes all public
school students who took the exam during the school day as juniors, the Class
of 2014 information being released today is for a larger group of students. The
results for Delaware’s Class of 2014 include all students (public and private)
who took the SAT during their high school career.

Class
of 2014 (Public and Private) SAT Mean Scores

Critical reading

497

Mathematics

513

Writing

487

Under the Universal
SAT program, the state expected that with a significant increase in the number
of students taking the test, some of whom are not preparing for college at this
time, the average SAT scores likely would decline compared to the results prior
to the program. This also makes it challenging to compare Delaware’s
average state scores to those of other states, which do not test all students.

While mean scores
have declined when comparing the 2011 cohort (the graduating class prior to the
Universal SAT program) to the 2014 cohort due to the increased participation,
half of the schools that administer the SAT have seen increases in the mean
scores from the 2012 cohort (the first graduating class to participate) to the
2014 cohort. For example, Red Clay Consolidated School District’s Dickinson
High School saw a mean total score increase of 101 points from 2012 to 2014
with an almost 58 percent increase in participation. And Cape Henlopen School
District’s Cape Henlopen High School saw a mean total score increase of 27
points while seeing a 19 percent increase in participation.

The state also has
seen an increase of 5.7 percent from 2012 to 2014 of the number of students
ready for college and career, as determined by the College Board’s College and
Career Readiness Benchmark, a research-based benchmark of 1550 associated with
a target level of college achievement.

The Universal SAT
program also significantly has increased the number of female test-takers: 50
percent from 2011 to 2014.

*Note:
The Universal SAT mean scores represent all district and charter school
students who took the SAT on April 16th, 2014. It does not include
the make-up test takers.